Paying for Long Island Railroad workers and other transit employees without contracts could cost the MTA $1.52 billion through 2018, the agency said Monday during its monthly meeting.

The borrowing capacity for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority may be lowered by $1.5 billion to help cover labor costs, the agency said Monday.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the largest U.S. transit system, may reduce capital spending and cut payments to its health care fund to pay projected labor costs through 2018, officials said.

Planned increases on fares and tolls remain unchanged at 4% in 2015 and 2017, according to documents released Monday at the agency's monthly board meeting in Manhattan.

The MTA and most workers of the Long Island Rail Road, the busiest U.S. commuter rail system, agreed on July 17 to a 17% wage boost over six and 1/2 years. That accord and projected salary and benefit expenses for other labor groups working without a contract may cost the MTA $1.52 billion through 2018.

article continues below advertisement

To cover those costs, the transit provider may lower the borrowing capacity of the MTA's next five-year capital plan by $1.5 billion, in part by using $400 million of funds originally pegged for infrastructure spending.

The MTA may also take $787 million that it would have placed in a fund for health-care costs and put it toward the estimated labor-cost increases.